Mount TBR Challenge: First Quarter 2015

This quarter I have read 20 books that count toward the 2015 Mount TBR Reading Challenge. My goal for the year is 48 books -- Mt. Ararat. So I am at 41.66% of my goal. The challenge is run by Bev at My Reader's Block. Bev hosts several challenges, and she reads and reviews a lot of mysteries, my favorite genre.

I did so well in this area in the first three months of the year because I also was participating in  the Double Dog Dare TBR Challenge hosted at James Reads Books. The goal in that challenge was to read only from the TBR pile in January, February, and March. 

Bev requests that we complete ONE or more of the following:

 A. Post a picture of your favorite cover so far.

 B. Who has been your favorite character so far? And tell us why, if you like.

 C. Have any of the books you read surprised you--if so, in what way (not as good as anticipated? unexpected ending? Best thing you've read ever? Etc.)

 D. Which book (read so far) has been on your TBR mountain the longest? Was it worth the wait? Or is it possible you should have tackled it back when you first put it on the pile? Or tossed it off the edge without reading it all?

My favorite cover: Villain by Shuichi Yoshida.

The book that surprised me most was The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe. The novel is a serial killer thriller and that is not my favorite type of mystery. Yet I found the story compelling. The protagonist, Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef, is a wonderful character and I look forward to reading the next in this series, which is also on my TBR pile.

Villain: Shuichi Yoshida

From the  Random House website:

A chilling and seductive story of loneliness, desperation, and murder, Villain is the English-language debut of one of Japan’s most popular writers. 

 A woman is killed at a ghostly mountain pass in southern Japan and the local police quickly pinpoint a suspect. But as the puzzle pieces of the crime slowly click into place, new questions arise. Is a villain simply the person who commits a crime or are those who feel no remorse for malicious behavior just as guilty? Moving from office parks and claustrophobic love hotels to desolate seaside towns and lighthouses, Shuichi Yoshida’s dark thriller reveals the inner lives of men and women who all have something to hide.

This novel had contrasting elements. This story is much more in the thriller vein than other Japanese mysteries I have read. The pacing is slow at times, but there is plenty of action at several points in the story. The tension heightens at the end.

The author focuses on the primary characters involved in the murder and the peripheral characters whose lives are affected by it. I enjoyed the way the story was told, from multiple points of view. The narrative goes back and forth between events before the murder and the search for the suspects. The story of the parents of the victim and the grandparents of one of the suspects was just as interesting to me as the story of the murder and the hunt for various suspects. This story is bleak. However, I did not find it a depressing read.

See also reviews by Bernadette at Reactions to Reading and Keishon at Yet Another Crime Fiction Blog. Keishon's post is a discussion between Keishon and another blogger with some spoilers.

One of the points that both of these reviews make was that the US cover with the gun made up of human bones bears no relation to the story. That is very true. But it is a cool cover and if I had not seen the cover in a bookstore several years ago, I probably would not have read this book.

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Publisher:   Pantheon Books, 2010 (orig. pub. 2007)
Translator:  Philip Gabriel
Length:       295 pages
Format:       Hardcover
Setting:       Japan
Genre:        Mystery
Source:       I purchased this book.